By Nolan D. McCaskill
WASHINGTON, June 24 (Reuters) - New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani scored a massive political victory on Tuesday when his trio of insurgent congressional candidates toppled two incumbents and the establishment favorite in an open seat, results some described as "a political earthquake" for Democrats.
All three of Mamdani's candidates have ties to the Democratic Socialists of America and favor issues such as universal health insurance and ending U.S. support to Israel's military
operations in Gaza. On Wednesday, many Democratic members of Congress doubted the tremors would extend beyond the biggest U.S. city in an era when President Donald Trump has labeled even some mainstream Democratic officials as "radical left lunatics."
"The American people in New York and increasingly all over the country are sick and tired of status quo establishment politics," said Senator Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent and democratic socialist who ran for president in 2016. "They want members of Congress having the guts to stand up to big money and create a government that works for them and not just a few."
Mamdani endorsed activist Darializa Avila Chevalier, former New York City Comptroller Brad Lander and state Assembly Member Claire Valdez. Avila Chevalier ousted Representative Adriano Espaillat, and Lander beat Representative Dan Goldman.
Valdez defeated Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, who was endorsed by retiring Representative Nydia Velazquez.
The results built on Mamdani's surprise victory over former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo in last year's mayoral race. They dealt a blow to House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries and the political establishment.
Joseph Geevarghese, executive director of the progressive political group Our Revolution, said the results show candidates are not doomed to lose if they refuse donations from corporations and the pro-Israel lobby and support policies such as Medicare for All.
"This is not an accident, and it is not isolated to New York," he said. "The same energy that elected Zohran Mamdani as mayor just elected an entire slate behind him."
American Priorities, a super PAC created to counter pro-Israel groups, said the results reflect a foreign policy shift among the Democratic base of voters.
"Candidates with a principled and clear position on Israel and Palestine reflect the prevailing views of Democratic voters," the group wrote in a Wednesday memo. "It’s now the establishment and party leaders that are out of step."
ANTI-ESTABLISHMENT ENERGY
Progressives have prevailed in Democratic primaries across the country, including the Washington, D.C., mayoral race; congressional races in safe Democratic seats in New Jersey and Pennsylvania; and in battleground House districts from Maine to California.
But House Democratic leaders highlighted Tuesday's win by moderate candidate Cait Conley in New York as one of the night's most significant victories.
Conley, a combat veteran and national security expert, will face Republican Representative Mike Lawler in November. Lawler represents one of just three Republican-held seats in districts Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris won in 2024, making it a top Democratic target.
Representative Chuy Garcia, a retiring progressive Democrat from Illinois, expressed optimism that Avila Chevalier, Lander and Valdez would be pragmatic members of the caucus once they come to Washington.
"Once you arrive here, you realize that in order to move an idea forward, a proposal, you need at least 218 votes, and getting there is no easy feat," he said. "It requires relationships. It requires knowledge. It requires working with a variety of political forces in your own caucus.”
Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut called Mamdani's sweep "a New York story more than anything else" but said voters were "clearly telling us they want us to be bolder" in policy proposals and political tactics.
"I don't want to bend over backwards to extrapolate too much based on one state's elections," Murphy said. "I'm not sure those results would reproduce themselves in every other state, but yeah, you'd be silly not to read something into yesterday's results."
Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, a Democrat, was less welcoming. He called Tuesday “a banner night for the dirtbag left in New York.”
Senator Jacky Rosen, a moderate in Nevada, also cautioned against drawing nationwide conclusions from a few local races in a single state.
"Every district, every state ... has a different flavor, a different reason for what's going on," she told Reuters. "So you're going to have to look at multiple elections, and they're way different in Nevada than they are in New York City."
(Reporting by Nolan D. McCaskill; Editing by Michael Learmonth and David Gregorio)
